Economic conditions prompted a reduction in force of about 30 employees Friday at Gradall Industries Inc.

“Continued softness in the sales orders for our Excavator product line requires this reduction, which affects all segments of our workforce,” said company President Mike Haberman. “Although overall business has improved since 2009, we continue to lag our recovery expectations and remain well below 2007 levels of activity.”

Gradall continues to employ more than 300 people.

Last month, the company offered voluntary layoffs in the production shop, “and many people participated,” Haberman said. He declined to provide specific numbers, but said they are part of the overall 30 employees.

He explained that the nonunion salaried or hourly employees impacted are considered permanent layoffs. Union employees on the production floor have call-back rights, based on seniority.

“Like everybody in the U.S., we hope for a better economy and more opportunities in the future,” Haberman said. “It’s not a good day at Gradall — there’s no question about that.”

That comes after Gradall brought back “a lot of people” in 2010 and 2011, and Haberman said in a business feature in January he was “hoping that our business will allow us to be back to our full force by the end of 2012.”

In that feature, Gradall officials said the company had introduced a wave of new equipment models during 2011, supporting a corporate strategy aimed at further economic recovery in 2012.

“Our business is not back to 2008 levels, but we’ve been showing steady progress,” Haberman said at the time. “It’s been a long, deep recession in our industry, posing a challenge for Gradall Industries, as well as every other equipment manufacturer. All of our people have worked very hard to get us back on track, and that’s resulted in good progress this year.”